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I come from a family of what my mom lovingly refers to as "food vultures". What she means by that is that there is always someone waiting to swoop in and snatch up whatever food is being prepared or put out. My siblings and cousins (and maybe even a few dads and uncles) have been known to hang around the perimeter of my grandmother's kitchen just waiting for our favorite dish or dessert to finished and uncovered. Never is this negative family trait more prominent than during the holidays.
My grandparents have a 10+ foot counter in the back of their kitchen and during the holidays it is covered with treats: butter cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate kiss cookies, fudge, almond rocca and so much more. All laid out in holiday tins, cellophane and Tupperware containers. As kids, we would wait patiently for the time of day when the adults would let us each pick one treat and then we would haggle over who got the biggest piece or the most sprinkles. As adults, we sneak what we can when we can when our mothers are in the other room getting ready or setting the table.
And as adults, we discovered something more than our autonomous ability to decide when and what we eat. We discovered that the adults had been keeping one of the best treats hidden for themselves in the back of the refrigerator; the Buckeyes. Where had these been all our of early lives? How had they not been shared with us? Why had we been fighting over who would get one of the thousands of cookies and other treats when there was only a limited supply of chocolate covered peanut butter goodness hiding in the fridge?
Now that there are 18 adult family members vying for Buckeyes and other desserts in my grandparents' house we have all resorted to some pretty
It is not uncommon for cookies to be hidden on shelves or in pantry cabinets. Buckeyes have been wrapped in cellophane and hid in the back of the veggie drawer to make sure that there would be some saved for later. One year, my cousin Rob even hid his favorite type of cookies in the laundry room. And it's not just the grandchildren who are guilty. I am 99% sure that my mom and my aunt Maria had a secret bin of my grandmother's chocolate kiss cookies in one of their rooms last year.
So in an attempt to alleviated some of the food vulture tendencies in our family, I decided to whip up a batch of my Aunt Jenny's family famous Buckeyes to give everyone an early taste of the holidays. The recipe is simple (peanut butter, powdered sugar and Land O' Lakes Butter) but the process takes a little bit of time so these are very much a labor of love in the world of holiday baking.
The recipe makes between 6-8 dozen so I actually froze some of the peanut butter mixture and will bring it out and dip some right before Christmas to surprise everyone when the original batch has been quickly eaten by my dessert crazy family. Or maybe I will hid them in the deli meat drawer and keep them all to myself.
Aunt Jenny's Famous Buckeyes
- 6 cups powdered sugar (1 1/2 pounds)
- 16oz jar of peanut butter (about 1 pound)
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of Land O' Lakes Butter
- 16 oz melting chocolate
2.) Place on wax paper on cookie sheet and chill.
3.) Melt chocolate according to instructions.
4.) Using a toothpick in center of peanut butter balls, dip them in chocolate leaving a small circle not covered in chocolate to resemble a buckeye.
5.) Place on wax paper. When cool, refrigerate.
Looking for more holiday baking recipes? Check out the Land O' Lakes holiday baking guide for more inspiration. Also, be on the look out for these double packs for Land O' Lakes Butter Sticks at Walmart to make sure that you don't run out of butter during all your holiday baking this season!
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